Your Humble Scribe

Friday, November 19, 2010

Over on the left you will find a link to The Cornered Cat, a web-site by, about, and for the lady shooter written by an absolutely wonderful lady named Kathy Jackson whom I was on Staff with over at The High Road.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Anyone with internet access has no doubt heard of the latest act in Transportation Security Theatre.

A quick recap for those who have not: a gentleman who happened to have a digital recording device "opted out" of walking through the full-body scan (also referred to as the Porn-Scan, the Pervo-Scan, and the alliteratively correct RapeScan), and was informed that he would be the recipient of the new "comprehensive pat down".

Having not received the time-honoured dinner and movie, nor even a kiss, the gentleman in question announced that if his wedding tackle got groped, he would have the groper arrested.

The local TSA operatives got their noses out of joint, with the end result that said dissenter got escorted from the aeroport with dire threats of an investigation and an $11,000 fine in his near future.

This has happily rebounded throughout BlogWorld with the result that a TSA spokes-critter has been caught on record making a very stupid statement:

"The (body image scanning) technology is sent to the airports without the ability to save, transmit or print the images," said Greg Soule, TSA spokesman, in an interview with CBSNews.com. "At airports, the images are examined by a security officer in a remote location, and, once the image is cleared, they're deleted."

Oh, dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

TSA employees are people. And people -- like it or not -- will find some way to Rule 34 the scanner images. Trust me, I deal with people every day.

It's going to happen.

So, I predict that in about a year -- two years at the outside -- a different TSA spokes-critter will be on national TeeVee explaining that the assorted scanned images of females' dishabille (Herself gleefully comes up with "PILFs!", I leave the translation of that to others better versed with Seinfeld than myself, but apparently the first word is "Passengers") is an isolated incident, that it can't happen again and steps have been taken to fire the TSA employee responsible.

Huh.

In light of this, if I were the father of teenage girls, there is no way this side of Hel that I'd take them anywhere near an aeroport with this kind of set-up ... ever again.

In what rational world does it become okay for someone to tell you, "Hey, we're going to take nekkid pictures of your precious daughters -- but it's okay! It's done by an anonymous person, and it's for your safety! And we won't ever, ever keep those pictures! We promise!" ...

... And people are fine with this. More than that, people are being told this is a Good Thing.

It's a Good Thing for a stranger to take nude pictures of your little girl. More than that, It's For Your Safety! The Government Says So!

*blink, blink*

Is it just me, or is there something fundamentally wrong with that whole mind-set?

Those wishing to make some kind of statement to the aerolines, may check out these links:Opt Out Day

Monday, November 08, 2010

By way of Herself, I find my self watching the BBC Masterpiece Mystery series, Sherlock.

It is a retelling of Sir Arthur's classic detective, my very own favourite Sherlock Holmes, albeit from a very modern perspective.

Some folks are not going to like this Holmes, but just like the recent movie involving Robert Downey (jr) and Jude Law, I approve of this Sherlock Holmes. He is much more faithful -- not completely so, but more so than other efforts -- and this pleases me.

The stories are set in the modern era of computers, cell phones and such (nicotine patches!) with Dr Watson being a veteran of the recent on-going unpleasantness in Afghanistan and Iraq.

There are several tongue-in-cheek references to the original stories -- the first episode is titled, "A Study in Pink", and others abound.

The first three episodes are free for a short time on the above-linked web-page, with the last one ending in what is -- for me -- an absolutely infuriatingly nail-biting cliff-hanger.

It doesn't cost you anything to watch the first three, and I think anyone who loves the old stories would be well-served by giving up a bit of time to watching these.

One word of advice to Dr Watson, though: If some critter has outfitted you with a Semtex weskit, and has the monumentally poor judgment to not only get within arm's reach of you, but to allow you to get an arm around his throat ... do go ahead, apply a rear naked choke, and just put him out of everyones misery.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Well, last night the Republican Party pretty much buried the Democrats in the House of Representatives; and in the Governors mansions around the country.

Much cheering abounds, and I'm happy for everyone.

As a history buff, however, I have to look back upon the mid-term elections of 1994 and ruminate.

Then, as now, an angry and restive populace -- who were voting against the power-mad Democratic government, rather than for The Other Guys -- swept the Republican Party into power, ending a four-decade Democratic lock on Congress.

And -- again, as now -- the Republican Party solemnly swore that they would turn Congress back to the Constitution; that they would bring smaller, less intrusive government back to Washington; and -- above all -- "fiscal accountability".

It took less than two years for the Republican Party to become just as greedy, power-mad, and crooked as the Democrats they replaced.

And here we are, sixteen years later, the newly on-top Republicans are swearing upon the heads of their first-born that they worship the Constitution; smaller government ...

... same song, different verse.

*sigh*

One of the only bits of light I can see in the near future is the fact that the Internet is much more completely established now than it was in the early '90's -- and the Internet is the source of the power of the Tea Party.

Oh, not the Tea Party itself, per se, but those voters who -- whether they know it or not; whether they admit it or not -- those voters that believe in and follow the values of the Tea Party.

Those are the voters that are responsible for the Republicans getting to be the belle of the ball.

Will the GOP now dance with those what brung 'em?

Early thoughts on that subject are not encouraging. Old habits tend to get set in stone, and that ancient habit displayed by the older Republicans of "lip service to the voters while we do as we damned well please" is pretty much fossilized into place.

Will the Internet base of the Tea Party, and like-minded folks, have the stick-to-it-ness to hammer on the Republicans for the next six months? A year? Two years down the road will they still be holding the elephants trunk to the grindstone?

Will the newly-minted Republican congress-critters have the testicular fortitude required to butt heads with party leadership; and the moral fortitude to cross that same party leadership -- even if it means getting turfed to Coventry by their own party?

Will the Republican leadership actually listen to their constituents; heed the counsel of their newest members, and keep the promises made over these last several months?

I do hope so, but looking back on history ... I'll not be holding my breath.